Tracing The Roots Of A Partisan Impeachment
President Trump was impeached Wednesday night on two articles of impeachment — one for abuse of power, the other for obstruction of Congress. And they both got more votes than either of the other two impeachments in American history.
But it was also partisan — zero Republicans broke ranks, and only two Democrats voted against the abuse of power article and three voted against the obstruction of Congress charge. One independent, a former Republican, voted in favor of Trump's impeachment on both counts.
That's not what happened 20 years ago when former President Clinton was impeached, or in 1974 when Congress was close to impeaching Nixon.
In 1998, a handful of Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for Clinton's impeachment, and dozens of Republicans voted against two of the articles of impeachment against him, sinking them. Twenty-four years before that, it was Republicans who pressured Richard Nixon to resign from office before the House could impeach him. Can anyone even imagine that happening with today's Republican Party and President Trump?
American politics has arrived at a remarkable place. The country and its leaders are growing more partisan, fewer people are persuadable in elections, and Republicans and Democrats view each other with an increasingly nastier edge. Americans areand ripping at the fabric of what it means to be American.
